UAB basketball coach Jerod Haase not slowing down after "the busiest 100 days of my life"

Jerod Haase is looking forward to his first season as UAB's head basketball coach. (The Birmingham News)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Earlier this week, first-year UAB men's basket­ball head coach Jerod Haase sat by a desk in an office at Bartow Arena that he's seen little of since accepting his first college head coaching job in early April.

He had done the math and his tenure as the UAB coach was about 100 days old.

"It's been the busiest 100 days of my life and it seems like every single day brings challenges and reasons for excite­ment," Haase said.

Sitting behind a desk wasn't often an option during a time when Haase put together a staff, recruited for next year's team as well as future teams, and got his family settled in Bir­mingham.

He's also spent loads of time put­ting together a sched­ule, which includes the recently announced se­ries with North Carolina and a soon-to-be-an­nounced home and home set with Rutgers that will begin on the road next season.

Before he went on the road to recruit again, News staff writer Steve Irvine caught up with him. Among other subjects, he talked about playing a tough nonconference schedule, including continuation of the Memphis rivalry, expectations for his new signees, and how long he plans to stay at UAB.

Q: What has been your biggest challenge thus far?

A: The most time-consuming thing has been recruiting. But the biggest chal­lenge at this point has been getting the cul­ture around UAB basketball the way that I want it to be. People have been fantastic. I absolutely love (UAB athletics director) Brian (Mackin) and the people I work with. I'm taking over a program and I'm the face on it, and getting everything done in a cer­tain fashion takes time.

Q: How big of a transition has it been for you going from an assistant coach to head coach?

A: The transition to head coach has been comfortable. The biggest transition has been getting the family down here and getting moved to a new city and trying to balance work, which has so many components, to the personal stuff. There are just so many moving parts.

Q: Are you recognized as much in public here as during your days at Kansas and North Carolina?

A: To be honest with you, at Kansas people definitely knew me but it was more because of the playing days. At North Carolina, maybe as time went on, they started to recognize me a little bit more but Coach Williams was such a face of the program and the players are such the face of the program that it was kind of nice that the assistant coaches could kind of skate by and not be noticed everywhere you go. In Birmingham, it's been neat that there are a lot of people who do recognize me and are excited about UAB basketball.

Q: How much have you learned about and tried to study the UAB basketball program history?

A: I don't think it's something where I've actually sat down and read media guides. But I think I've studied the past from conversations with people in the program now or have been around the program in the past. Those conversations have been really helpful.

When you talk about the past in this program, you're talking about in large measure Gene Bartow. The way he ran the program and the kind of man he was have set the standard for where this program needs to be.

Q: Do you wish you had the chance to know Coach Bartow?

A: There is no doubt about it that it would have been awesome if he was around the program now to help and assist and answer questions. That is a dream scenario. It would have been awesome as an assistant coach if I would have been able to meet him and get to know him. I can learn about legacy, I can learn about him, I can learn about the culture of this place by talking to people that have known him for a long time. It's nice because it's given me a copy and a blueprint that, in a lot of ways, I can try to copy and follow.

Q: What is your scheduling philosophy?

A: We're going to be aggressive in our scheduling, especially with having a new face of the conference. My goal, and this is an aggressive goal certainly, is I would like to have this program be in a position that if we lose in the conference tournament we could still be considered an at-large team. To do that, you're going to have to have a monstrous nonconference schedule with quality games at home and away. I do think we can and will get BCS-level teams to come into Bartow Arena.

Q: Have there been discussions on keeping the Memphis series alive after next year?

A: Yes. I talked to Josh (Pastner) at the conference meetings. I've actually had a couple of conversations with him. This summer, when I see him, I going to say that we're going to do everything we can to get that series started after the conference breaks up a little bit. From our end, it's going to be a strong push to get that done.

Q: When you look at this year's roster, what jumps out at you?

A: We have really good kids, absolutely topnotch kids. With that, we also have kids who are completely eager to win and win at a high rate. Each kid had their own time frame, which is totally normal, in terms of buying into me, buying into the system, buying into the things we're saying. I feel like everybody that's here now has totally bought in. There are talented players here and we've done some things to kind of fill some of the holes that were left on the roster. By filling those holes, I think we can compete at a high level in Conference USA.

Q: With two open scholarships, Quincy Taylor coming off a knee injury and K.C. Whitaker's foot and ankle problems, do you worry about numbers?

A: Certainly. We're not necessarily done with recruiting. We'd love to have more depth. You always think that as a coach, but I will say we do have some depth at every position right now and we have some quality depth.

Q: What do the three signees bring to your program?

A: Terence Jones is a combo guard that can play a few minutes at the point guard but is a natural scorer. He's quickly shown that he has a presence about him and he's a mature player who's been around the block a few times. I think his scoring ability will really be an added weapon for us. Rod Rucker, who is coming in here in the fall, I think he's a guy who is going to be extremely versatile. I think he'll do whatever he's asked to do and is totally a team-first guy. It's funny, I seem to always label him as a hard worker and has all the intangibles but he's a very talented basketball player, as well. He'll probably play most of his minutes in the front court and have to bang with the big guys, which he welcomes. Fahro Alihodzic, needless to say, adds some depth to the front court. He's 6-9, has a good body on him and this summer has been good for him. He adds size and length up front.

Q: How much time was put in to find out what happened with Fahro last year when he was part of a junior college team that was shut down for breaking team rules?

A: We spent a lot of time looking into things. Any situation he's had in the past, he was on the team where there was some issues. If you spend five or 10 minutes, or more importantly spend months with him like we've done now, he has risen to the top in terms of character. He is off the charts in terms of the quality of a kid.

Q: Did the two players who left -- Ovie Soko and Herb Harrison -- leave on their own?

A: I told everybody the first day that I was not running anybody off or doing anything like that and everybody was welcomed to be on the team. Those were two unique situations where they kind of chose a different path. I supported them with that, too.

Q: Why did you keep Lou DeNeen as the program's strength coach and what are your impressions of his work thus far?

A In general, outside the immediate coaching staff and operations, I wanted to keep everybody unless there was some issue that came up right away. Lou's energy has been phenomenal. . . . He knows that I'm committed to him and he's committed to this program.

Q: Do you still look at this as a destination job?

A: People looked at me funny when I said this was a destination job. This is a big-time job, it really is. The one thing that has been exciting since we moved here is Birmingham is a destination location. My wife and kids are comfortable here. The schools are fantastic, there are lots of things to do. The people in our community and our neighborhood are fantastic. It's a job and a city where I could be happy with for a long, long time.